Thank you for your interest in this event! While this screening is over, there are many other exciting LHAAFF events to enjoy during the week of April 22-30, 2006. We also host monthly screenings in our Underground Railroad traveling film series during the rest of the year, part of an ongoing effort to build community across the aisle. Please visit our website, www.langstonblackfilmfest.org, for schedule information.

Event

Black Bodies: Beauty and Midwives

THE BODY BEAUTIFUL (United Kingdom) Director: Ngozi Orunwah. This bold, stunning exploration of a white mother who undergoes a radical mastectomy and her Black daughter who embarks on a modeling career reveals the profound effects of body image and the strain of racial and sexual identity on their charged, intensely loving bond. At the heart of Onwurah's brave excursion into her mother's scorned sexuality is a provocative interweaving of memory and fantasy. The filmmaker plumbs the depths of maternal strength and daughterly devotion in an unforgettable tribute starring her real-life mother, Madge Onwurah.

BRINGIN' IN DA SPIRIT (USA) Director: Rhonda L. Haynes. Through the use of first person narrative and rare archival images, this documentary provides a moving glimpse of the women who have skillfully brought scores of children across the threshold of existence. Narrated by Phylicia Rashad, this evocative and passionate film celebrates women who have committed themselves to holistic answers amidst powerful misconceptions about the practice of midwifery and virulent opposition from practitioners of Western medicine. The film's director, Rhonda L Haynes, was inspired by her own knowledge of contemporary, midwives working Harlem.